1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to a liquid container and a liquid ejecting apparatus.
2. Related Art
In general, as inks used in ink jet recording apparatuses, ones in which dispersed particles of a pigment or the like are uniformly dispersed and mixed in a solvent are widely used. When such inks are left to stand for long periods, there is a tendency for the dispersed particles which have a heavy density in comparison with the solvent to precipitate. The precipitation of the dispersed particles leads to a decrease in recording quality, such as color unevenness or ink clogging in the recording apparatus, ejection defects or the like. Therefore, for example, in a case of a recording apparatus using an ink cartridge, in order to redisperse the precipitated dispersed particles in the inner portion of the ink cartridge, methods of shaking and stirring the ink cartridge have been adopted. However, in a sealed type ink cartridge which does not include an air layer in the inner portion, there are problems in that ink convection does not easily occur, and it is not possible to effectively perform stirring. In relation to this, various ink stirring methods and techniques providing a stirring mechanism have been proposed. For example, in JP-A-2006-1240, there is proposed a technique of performing stirring by inserting a stirring ball inside the ink cartridge.
However, the above-described technique of performing stirring by inserting a stirring ball inside the ink cartridge has a problem in that the volume of the stirring ball is great in comparison with the ink capacity and it is not possible to increase the filling rate of the ink. Specifically, in order to be able to effectively perform stirring in a short time by moving the stirring ball around every hole and corner even when the shaking frequency or the shaking width is small, there is a need to insert a sufficient number of stirring balls or to insert stirring balls having a sufficient size and weight. As a result, reducing the ratio of the volume occupied by the stirring ball in the ink cartridge is difficult, in particular, in a case where the ink cartridge is large, the volume occupied by the stirring ball, the weight, the necessary costs, and the like cannot be ignored.